The national curling championship is being held this week in Denver, with former Minnesota Vikings star Jared Allen on a team that hopes to qualify for the 2026 Olympics.
Allen's presence in the tournament has boosted interest, all the more when his team — skippered by Jason Smith, a Minnesota native now curling out of Nashville — defeated the team of 2018 Olympic gold medalist John Shuster of Duluth in the opening match of the round robin.
On Wednesday, Team Shuster split its two matches to move into third place in the standings at 4-2. Allen's team lost both matches to drop to 3-3 in a two-way tie for fourth place with one round-robin match left before the semifinals. Those matches will take place Wednesday at 1 p.m.
The Daniel Casper rink, out of Chaska, and Scott Dunnam's rink out of Philadelphia lead with 5-1 records. In the women's standings, Team Tabitha Peterson of Chaska is on top of the standings at 5-0 while Team Delaney Strouse of Minneapolis and Team Sarah Anderson of Chaska are tied for second at 4-1. The women's side has two matches left in round-robin play — one set at 10 a.m. Thursday and the final at 7 p.m.
Five of the eight teams in both the men's and women's events are based in Minnesota, and two of the women's teams are based in Fargo, N.D.
The eight teams will face each other in round-robin play through Thursday with the top four advancing to the semifinals on Friday. The championship match is set for Saturday.
Matches can be watched on USA Curling's YouTube channel.
Here are more links for following the tournament:
Standing and schedules: Men | Women
Match results and linescores: Men | Women
Team rosters and biographies: Men | Women
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